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The Ethics of a Decision
Is my action legal? Is it right? Is it beneficial? How would I feel if my family found out about this? How would I feel if my decision were printed in the local newspaper?" Only after these questions are asked and satisfactorily answered, should you take action on a decision. Ethical and moral conduct is involved in choosing problems, deciding who should be involved, estimating the impacts of alternatives, and selecting an alternative to the implementation.
Of all the various steps and considerations involved in coming to a good decision, perhaps ethics is the most important. Ethics has developed as people have reflected upon the intentions and consequences of their acts. In philosophy, "ethics" is the study and evaluation of human conduct in the light of moral principles. Moral principles are viewed as either the standard of conduct that individuals have set for themselves, or as the obligations and duties that a particular society requires of its members. Business ethics is the study and evaluation of decision making by businesses according to moral concepts and judgments.

Ethical or moral behavior that governs a person's choices, however, is a subject of debate. Different people have different views of ethics. For example, one view may consider the best decision to be that which delivers the greatest good to the greatest number of people; the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Another view would be that which is best for an individual's long-term self-interests, meaning any short-term decisions will automatically be considered ethical if they have positive long-term results. Ethical behavior to some may be that which respects fundamental rights shared by all human beings, such as life, liberty, and fair treatment by law, rights to privacy, due process, and freedom of speech. Others may view it to be that which is fair and impartial in its treatment of all people.
Due to the various views on what is and what is not ethical, ground rules need to be set. These ground rules will change, pending on the situation at hand, the players involved, and the decision to be made. To come to an ethically sound decision there are some ground rules that should be present regardless of the problem, intended outcome, and teams involved. The team must keep an open mind, meaning that their decisions should not be biased due to previously learned responses. As an example, a software engineer should not allow a past

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